Langston Huges

Langston(James Mercer)Hughes,

b. Feb. 1, 1902, Joplin, Mo., U.S.--d. May 22, 1967, New York City), black poet and writer who became, through numerous translations, one of the foremost interpreters to the world of the black experience in the United States.

Hughes' personal history had deep roots in the African American struggle for freedom and equality. His maternal grandfather took part in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, a failed attempt to mobilize a slave rebellion just before the civil war. Although his grandfather was killed in that raid, he was never forgotten. Langston had his grandfather's shawl for a bedcover as a young boy, and you can imagine the stories his grandmother told him when he asked questions about its many bullet holes and bloodstains. And you can imagine, probably, the mixture of pride and anguish he must have felt. And you can imagine, too, how such a boy might grow to be a writer who never shied away from celebrating racial pride in spite of the contempt the larger society expressed toward his race. As your textbook tells us: "Throughout his long career as a professional writer, Hughes remained true to the African American heritage he celebrated in his writings, which were frankly "racial in theme and treatment, derived from the life I know." Hughes published an essay called "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" in 1926, encouraging other African-American artists to integrate their racial legacy and not flee from it.